Alternating row colors based on date

[cr731]

I have a table where the left-most column is the date, and other data in the columns to the right. I would like to have this table automatically alternate row colors based on the date, so that each day stands out and it is easy to see where the day changes. The trouble is the number of rows for each day is variable.

At first I considered a conditional format formula similar to:

=if(iseven(day(B4)),true) where column B contains the date

So that each day it would alternate color. But then I realized it is possible to skip a day and have two odd or two even days next to each other.

Can anyone think of another efficient way to do this?

Thanks

 

[CWatts]

This is kind of ugly, but it will work. if you have your list of dates, in ascending order, insert a column before the list.

Assumming your dates start in column A1, insert a column so they are starting in B1. In A1, put a 0, and in A2, put the following formula:

=IF(B2=B1,A1,IF(A1=1,0,1))

That cell will look for dates to alternate and if they do alternate it will change it to 0 or 1, and you can set your conditional formatting based on the value of column A.

Hope that does what you need.

 

[cr731]

Well, that would technically work, but I would prefer not to have something where the formula needs to be constantly updated, since this will be used by other users that may not understand the need to drag down the formula for the row color.

 

[T. Valko]

I have a table where the left-most column is the date, and other data in the columns to the right. I would like to have this table automatically alternate row colors based on the date, so that each day stands out and it is easy to see where the day changes. The trouble is the number of rows for each day is variable.

At first I considered a conditional format formula similar to:

=if(iseven(day(B4)),true) where column B contains the date

So that each day it would alternate color. But then I realized it is possible to skip a day and have two odd or two even days next to each other.

Can anyone think of another efficient way to do this?

Thanks

How many rows of data are there?

 

[cr731]

How many rows of data are there?

Well, it could vary, but probably around 2,000.

 

[T. Valko]

Well, it could vary, but probably around 2,000.

I don't know if this will be very efficient!

Sheet1

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BORDER-TOP-COLOR: #000000; BORDER-BOTTOM: #000000 1px solid; BACKGROUND-COLOR: #ccffcc; TEXT-ALIGN: center">7/10/2011</TD><TD style="BORDER-TOP-WIDTH: 1px; BORDER-RIGHT: #000000 1px solid; BORDER-LEFT-WIDTH: 1px; BORDER-LEFT-COLOR: #000000; BORDER-TOP-COLOR: #000000; BORDER-BOTTOM: #000000 1px solid; BACKGROUND-COLOR: #ccffcc; TEXT-ALIGN: center">51</TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE>


The formatting must not start on row 1. There must be a row above the first row where the formatting is to be applied.

So, let's assume you want to color band the rows at each change in the data in column A.

In this example the range of interest is A2:B15.

Select the entire range A2:B15 starting from cell A2. Cell A2 will be the active cell. The formula used is relative to the active cell.

In conditional formatting select the "formula option".

Use this formula:

=AND($A2<>"",MOD(SUMPRODUCT(--($A$1:$A1<>$A$2:$A2)),2))

Set the cell fill color.

Notice how the formula references row 1 even though we want to apply the format starting on row 2. This relates to the point I made that there must be a row above the first row to be formatted. The value, if any, in cell A1 must not equal the value of cell A2. Typically we would have a descriptive column header in cell A1 and the data starting in cell A2 and these 2 values would normally not be equal.

I can't say that this would/will be efficient on 2000 rows of data!

 

[byoung7998]

I recently came into this issue on a list of insurance claim data. I needed the data separated out by claim year (6/1 policy inception date). So I could not simply cause the cell colors to change by checking just the year of the claim.

First I had to sort the entire list by date of loss (it had 7 years of claim data). Then to accomplish this, I used this formula in the conditional formatting window:

=ISEVEN(INT(YEARFRAC("6/1/2011",$D5)))

First you highlight the entire range you want altered before entering into the conditional formatting menu.

The YEARFRAC part returns the number of years between 6/1/2011 (the oldest date on the list of claims) and the date stored in Column D. The $D is important so each cell in the entire table references that column in the conditional formatting. So with this you will get numbers like 1.007334 and 4.2359, etc. depending on the difference in dates. Then the INT() function chops off the decimal, leaving you with a whole number. Now you have numbers like 0, 1, 2, 3, etc. for each policy year. Then the ISEVEN() function returns TRUE or FALSE depending if the data is an even or odd number. This TRUE or FALSE triggers the conditional formatting to allow or not allow the shading you set for that cell. This will make the entire table alternate between two colors. The only time this method fails is if a particular year has no data (for example you have claims in year 4, no claims in year 5, and claims in year 6. Then years 4 and 6 are shown together and will appear to be shaded the same color. But there are enough claims in my customer's situation that this will never be an issue.